The Story of the
"United CBers of America"

By Gary, WD4NKA

I was clearing out the contents of a box a few nights
back, and i came upon old QSL cards from a past life,
my CB radio days. I had a lot of fun traipsing the
band'o citizens back in the late 1960's and early 1970's,
and in time i was motivated to move on to obtain my amateur
radio license. The motivation might have been the desire to
talk over long distances, or maybe it was for the academic
challenge, or perhaps both. Or maybe a singular event.

I looked over these cards, and a flood of memories invaded
my mind as i lost awareness of the late hour. One particular
QSL card brought me back to an unusual event which occured
on a summer nite of nearly thirty years ago.

On this particular eve i was invited to join a party of the local
"channel eleven" crowd headed over to what i assumed was a
"Coffee Break", sort of a CBer's getogether.

It occured in the back yard of a CBer down the road . . .
a country road, that is, which was several miles from my house.
This CBer, known as "Red", had a bon-fire roaring in his back yard
for the event. As it turned out, several hundred similar bon-fires
were lit all across the country for this single event that evening.

The setting sun was casting it's last purple traces
to remember the day as we pulled up in Red's driveway
area, already teaming with bronco's, el-caminos, and
harvesters. The aroma of cigarettes, beer, and Hai Karate hung heavily
in the air. Over 40 men and teens, some with girlfriends,
wives, and kids were gathered around the fire.

At a given time, signaled by the nod of Red's Caterpillar hat,
a CBer we all knew as the "Golden Knight" stood up
to read a letter from a yankee fella way up north, a CBer who
had pulled off one of the wierdest public movements in private
radio history. Some of you folks who were CBers during this time might
remember his call, because thousands used it. It became almost
a mantra that rode eleven meter skip all over the 23 channel skies:

"KDW-six-zero-seven-six, the voice of Freedom, United CBers of America! "

"GK" read this the letter to the gathering crowd. I heard only
part of it, something about the Federal intrusion upon the American
public in the form of the FCC, something about civil rights, and
something about free speech. Everyone was apparently in agreement,
silent heads nodding, an occasional pop-top from a bud can breaking
the reverie.

Initiated by Mr. Red, everyone pulled forth what turned out to be
their CB wall certificates ( CBers were not licensed, but rather,
the Station. Legally, the CB station was licensed to the owner, who's
name appeared on the wall certificate.)
. . . and tossed them into the bonfire, as i looked on. In small towns
and burgs like ours in Goldenrod, Florida, across the United States that
night thousands of CBers were doing the same thing. A planned, mass license
burning. It was a strange ceremony, indeed. My license remained
on my wall, however, with Ben Waple's signature on it. My station remained
KDU-0979.

Here was the story behind the story, as explained by one
of the license burners of that night:

KDW-6076 was the call issued to the fella that wrote the letter
GK was reading, name here omitted, who on his application applied
for ONE MILLION UNITS. By some snaffu, it got past the application
process. The eight dollar application check was processed, and KDW-6076
wound up being the call used by one million "remote units". It sure
sounded like a million, anyway.
Since regulations made it technically illegal to call another station - -
( believe it or not, by law, CB stations which were not under the same
license had to pre-arrange contacts. It was illegal to call another
station just to call another station! There were also restrictions on
which channels you were supposed to conduct base-to-base operations,
base-to-mobile operations, etc, and all communications had to have
a specific point: no hobby talk was allowed. Of course, from the very
beginning these regulations were ignored in the main.)- - by being
under the same license, they could jump over these technicalities . . .
in theory.

They called themselves the "UCBA". They gloried in their great numbers,
and this idea that they had somehow "tricked" the FCC by using it's own
regulations against itself. This was the maneuver which was supposed
to deliver a knock-out blow to the FCC, and free the Citizen's band
from the shackles of Federal Regulation. Libertines, who felt that any
Federal administration of any kind constituted a breach of rights.

The FCC responded that however his call was issued, by error or by
coersion, it was patently illegal, and so were all those thousands
of his call users, who were beginning to re-think the wisdom of those mass
burnings.

Obviously the FCC could not go after everybody, but they did go after
KDW-6076, which brought an end to the UCBA, soon thereafter
taking it's place next to Cox's army, the Bull Moose party, and other movements
that might have brought momentary awareness to a cause, but affected no real
change, save filler for dull moments in history books.

It was at this time that the first attempt at a class"E" citizen's band
was proposed, and dropped. I can't help but think this movement sunk
that proposal.

The UCBA, as i remember it, spanned coast to coast, plus there were
Canadian users of the UCBA call, something i thought rather odd. But then,
this was a mass movement with sympathisers, seeking an emotional
outlet, not necessarily a logical one.

One by one, most of the UCBA call users I was acquainted with dropped
out of radio altogether. Those that remained i count as fellow hams
today. Maybe we all learned something by this bizarre episode.

Perhaps the UCBA did do something constructive, after all . . . it showed
that there is a right way and a wrong way to attempt change.